The emigration on screen: the rhetoric of success. The Portugueses pelo Mundo documentary series

Emigration is a marker of Portuguese identity. Since the eighteenth century, the representationof the emigrant fluctuates between the recognition of the accomplished course and the stigmatization of their status and socio-cultural practices. Lately, in a context of economic crisis,a new migratory wave – in which long lasting unemployed coexist with newly graduated – madesuch representation more complex. Broadcasted since 2010, on the public channel RTP1, the documentary series Portugueses pelo mundo – Portuguese around the world (seven seasons, 89 episodes) became a benchmark in what concerns media coverage of immigrants in their country of origin. Taking into account the first two seasons, our research reveals the profile and speeches of 85 protagonists, most of them young graduates, who value their multicultural experience and successful integration instead of focussing in any possible difficulties that are natural in the migratory process. From Beijing to Los Angeles, going through Sydney, Dakar and Paris, the cartography of the (new) Portuguese diaspora updates the old refrain of success across borders.